The book is completed and then the rest of the book’s life starts. Getting it produced, printed and to the retailers is an entire slew of jobs in itself. Without the help of a lot of people along the way, I’d just be laboring away all day putting a book together that no one sees. Marketing, advertising, and getting the word out is just as important as every other step. This is something I realized from the beginning when I was just doing photocopied mini comics that were hand stapled and delivered to local comic shops. If nobody has heard of it or you, it’ll just sit there.

Day 5
The writing is done and the art is turned in. But there’s still work to do. I think the design and presentation of books—not just graphic novels—gets overlooked. To me, the way the information is delivered is as important to and a key part of the content itself. Again, much like with color, if it’s not adding to the story and the narrative then it’s wasted space.

Day 2
After the pitch was approved and greenlit I started the “real” writing. Over the years my process has always changed from book to book but generally what happens is that I type out a rough outline of all the major action and dialogue—this reads as if someone is just telling you the story around a campfire. Then I take this text, print it out, and draw lines to break up the action into sections and rough page breakdowns.

Day 1
First off, thanks to everyone at Vertigo for supporting my new book and letting me have this extra venue to talk about it. Over the next few days I’ll try to go into as much of the interesting details of my creative process as I can.